Leo Messi receives prize from Pope Francis’ Scholas Occurrentes programme

Leo Messi receives prize from Pope Francis’ Scholas Occurrentes programme

On the 9th of September 2019 Lionel Messi received ball blessed by the Holy Father and made out of cloth by children from one of the organisation’s projects in Mozambique. 

Leo Messi recieved the Scholas Educational Ball – Brazil 2019 award, which was out of cloth by children from the town of Chicomo (Mozambique), and blessed by Pope Francis, and which represents football at its purest. It is awarded by the Scholas Occurrentes organisation, which has been working with the Barça Foundation since 2015 to promote education in values among young people and encourage them to think about social issues. 

The Barça captain collected the ball at the Ciutat Esportiva Joan Gamper, where he was joined by the president of Scholas Occurrentes José Maria del Corral and the first vice-president of FC Barcelona and the Barça Foundation, Jordi Cardoner. The candidates were chosen during the last Copa America for setting an example for the footballing values (as proposed by the Scholas Foundation) off effort, solidarity, honesty, identity, resilience, respect and teamwork. The boys and girls in the Scholas world network of over 500,000 institutions and education networks in 191 countries voted for the winner.

The Argentina and FC Barcelona captain got 34.28% of the votes, ahead of Peruvians Edison Flores (15.56%) and Pedro Gallese (11.28%). Fourth place went to Brazil’s Dani Alves (10.5%); and other players in contention included Lautaro Martínez, Allison, Sergio Agüero, Coutinho, Alexis Sánchez, Arturo Vidal and José Fuenzalida. The children were especially impressed by Messi’s humility, the way he uses his skill to benefit the team, his effort, his solidarity and his background of fighting against adversity as a youngster.

BARÇA FOUNDATION: 

The Barça Foundation was launched in 1994 to support the children and youth of the most vulnerable social groups through sport and education in values, with the objective of contributing to a more just and inclusive society. The Barça Foundation frames its activities within the UN programmes Sport for Development and Sustainable Development Goals. The main action lines are educational access and support, violence prevention and conflict resolution in childhood and youth and fight against social exclusion and discrimination. Today, the Foundation reaches to more than 1,000,000 beneficiaries in more than 53 different countries from around the world.

The Mission and Vision of the foundation is:

. Supporting children and youths from the most vulnerable groups through sports and education, thereby contributing to a more egalitarian and inclusive society.

. Being the leading sports foundation in the world in terms of its social contribution to children and youths.